Full Item Description
This band is made from 15 tiny shards. The shards are side by side and bound into an irregularly shaped magic ring. It looks as though it were constructed from broken glass.
The ring emanates magic. Plant life within a half inch radius of the ring is forced through accelerated rebirth cycles. Grass will visibly rise, mature and perish, mold will grow and fall off, wood will rot.
History
'Much has been written about the shards that have fallen. Noteworthy men - enough for whole textbooks - have sought them. What they have never realized is that not all shards are ancient - some shards have fallen recently; The last fell a 50 years ago!'
David, looked up at his grandfather with feigned amazement. His grandfather was by profession a storyteller, but in his age his voice had lost some of its charm, and his eyes had lost a great deal of their sparkle. David's father had told him that his grandfather was once a famous bard, and had fought the great necromancer: mad Theodric.
'Don't tell the shards stories, grandfather. Tell the story of the orcs and the Scarlet Scoundrel!', David whined.
'Aah David, I would if I had time, I would tell you of ancient heros and treasures, and all the scarlet scoundrels adventures... but this is important David.', David's grandfather sighed, and looked into clear morning sky before shutting his ancient text. 'David, your father, rest his soul, had a special task set out for him; but he's gone to a better place, and that task will fall to you. These stories are important, David, important for you, and for everyone else that you know them.'
David's grandfather opened the book again, and started thumbing the pages, looking for a place to begin. David picked at the dandelions near his feet, tearing them apart with his fingertips then tossing the stems and flowers into the air.
'The shards are not all ancient, their descent, like everything about them, mimics the storms. The evil ones came first, shards of foreboding, shards of darkness, shards of gathering turmoil. Then the shards of power came, elemental power, lightning, rain and water. The very last to fall were shards of good, renewal and light.'
David hated stories of ancient magic, he wanted to hear about brave warriors and evil sorcerers, those were his favorite. David's grandfather studied David for a minute, and then stood up and spoke in a low voice.
'In my youth child there was an evil sorcerer, mad Theodric was his name, and his dark armies freely roamed and enslaved the tortured kingdom.'
As David's grandfather spoke, dark clouds rolled in, and the storyteller grew taller and his voice boomed.
'The land cried out for heroes, boy. Myself, and Kilrey the dwarf and Lord Braniel, who would become king, answered the summons. We traveled the land fighting the evil until we conquered an audience with the madman himself.'
David knew how this story ended, even though his grandfather never told it. He had heard it from the practicing bards and song writers when we went to town.
'When we beheld the man we saw an ugly horrifying man, gross and deformed. He raged with anger and we fought him for hours... but we failed.'
David's eyes opened wide, the heroes always defeated the necromancer as the other bards told it. His grandfather never lost.
'In truth David, we lost the fight. Kilrey was destroyed utterly, and I only survived by the Mad Theodrics healing power.'
'Thats not how it goes, you're telling the story wrong!', David protested.
'I've only told the story wrong once my boy - on purpose, mind you - others have retold it wrong since. This is the third time I've told this story, and I am telling it to you.'
The clouds had dispersed and David's grandfather sat back down, as old and tired as ever.
'Mad Theodric was not mad with power, but with hate. He was a hideous man, and had been since birth. As a man of strong character and noble mind, and was driven to rage and hate by his mistreatment at the hands of his family and community.'
'It was these last shards - of the shards I've been telling you about at night, that he sought. The shards of renewal. They are quite singular: they 'renew' things. Not like a fountain of youth renews, it's more subtle. The shards release anger and hope, and while it does its magic it holds you in trance. When the last memory of your life leaves the world, and there remains no one who knew you, then it releases you into the world, with a blank moral compass to create a new life for yourself.'
'It was Mad Theodrics wish to start again, to leave behind the pain and misery of his life. And we agreed to help him, for we pitied him and feared him so. The next years were awful, and we did terrible things to obtain those shards. We used our heroic reputations to find the shards, then we fought alongside the undead to obtain them! We wore macabre masks to protect our identities. I wish I had my own ring of renewal, so I could accept the screams of those years.'
David looked at his grandfather with renewed wonder. His grandfather said nothing for a long time, David was about to speak, but his grandfather continued his narration first.
'I shudder as I say this: the ends justified the means.', His grandfathers face was grim. 'We forged the ring from those shards, and Mad Thoedric put it on an fell into rest. May no one ever disturb that rest.'
'But before he put it on his boney finger, he made me swear an oath that for ten generations my family must watch over his idle self. We must never tell anyone that he lives still, and defend his form with our lives. It is best that no one ever takes the ring from his hands, if god be with us, then let that sleeping dog lie.'
Davids grandfather went back into the house, leaving a terrified David feeling exposed outside. David quickly followed his grandfather back inside. A strange and horrific idea entered David's mind. He waited until his grandfather had fallen asleep at his chair, then he carefully took his grandfathers key from his belt, and snuck past him, up the stairs, and towards his mute brothers room. David had seen his brother only once or twice before, but was told to never disturb him . His father had said his brother Rafiel was very ill and could not speak or move.
He unlocked the door, and then David pushed open the door slowly. It creaked open into a dark room. Grabbing a nearby candle, David cupped the light to illuminate the far corner of the musty black room. The light barely touched the back, but David could see Rafiels pale eyes gleaming in the light, his face staring blankly from afar.
It took time for David to build his courage and step into the room and towards his brother. But David's curiosity eventually overpowered his fear. As he crept towards the frozen figure, David lowered the candle to illuminate Rafiel's hands.
And on the ring finger of the left hand, to David's horror, was a ring of many shards.
Magic/Cursed Properties
The ring puts the ring bearer into a trance like state for as long as it takes for them to be forgotten. While the person is in this state they're morality is put into a neutral state.
The person will emerge from the rings domination with a new outlook in a future that has forgotten them. They will still remember what they've done, and what they've learned, but they will look upon their history with a blank moral canvas.
The process can be reversed by removing the ring before the transition is complete.
The ring does not protect the bearer from assault. They can be killed while wearing the ring, before the metamorphosis is complete. However this act has a chance of breaking the rings hold, or short-circuiting the process leaving the ring bearer mentally unstable.

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? Quest

First Official Quest 12 week long quest with 10XP award per post. To get things really started here on new Strolen's I dug into the archives and recovered Siren no Orakio's old request for fresh ideas on the Shards of the Storm. The quest is as follows: What non-weapon can you make of the Shards of the Storm? Who among us can craft the most ingenious idea spawned from Siren's old masterpiece? Originally posted by Siren no Orakio:

Some time ago, I posted up the Shards of the Storm. In essence, they are fragments of a goddess's essense, containing a piece of the driven fury of the concept of the Storm. Much of their purpose, from a GMing point of view, is to provide a common thread for items of power. So? So, so far I have only been able to come up with two not-weapon items to make out of these, and I'd like to see what better minds than mine can do with them.
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